The Yoga of Real Life

Minimalist Chakras: New Series!

No! Not another blog post about chakras. I can hear you cringing from behind your screen already.

What could Practically Yoga have to say about the chakras that hasn’t already been said? Well, probably nothing. But I am going to do my best to put a little bit of a different spin on it than you’re used to (fingers & toes crossed!).

Welcome to our new series; Minimalist Chakras! The purpose of this series is to provide you with useful, concrete ways of integrating the chakras into your practice, while at the same time, giving you a little more insight into your life off the mat. Is that ambitious? I don’t know. I’m just going to give it my best shot.

Why am I calling this series ‘Minimalist Chakras’? Well, so much has been written about the chakras that I wanted to strip them down to their most useful and most relatable parts. There will be no ‘orbs of glowing light’ here. Unless you choose to practice under a strobe light. You do you, yogi.

So what are the chakras you might ask? The way I prefer to describe them is as centers/areas of the body that can hold physical and emotional tension. There are said to be 1000’s of them in the body, but yoga teachers tend to focus only on the main seven that exist along the center of your body.

The main seven chakras are depicted below including their common name, location and associated emotions.

Minimalist Chakras

The skeptic in you might say, “this is bull****, how do we even know the chakras exist?” The only way I know they exist is based on my personal experience of them during my teacher training and on until today. For me, the chakras gave voice to very real physical and emotional sensations that previously I saw no connection between. Once those links between my physical symptoms and emotional state had a name (i.e. one of the chakras), it was a **holy crap light bulb explosion** moment.

If you want more messy details about my personal chakra experience, stay tuned for my post on Muladhara Chakra.

If the chakras are only good for one thing, it is that they can give you a new/another vocabulary and understanding of how you are feeling/existing (physical & emotionally).

What can you expect from this series?

A monthly post focusing on one of the primary chakras, involving a physical practice so you can root around (first chakra pun not intended) and explore the physical manifestations of the chakras. Experiencing it in your own body will make it relatable to you in a way that cannot happen by just reading these posts.

So are you ready to jump down the chakra rabbit hole with me? See you next month for an exploration of Muladhara Chakra!!